Optimizing power efficiency of a power amplifier circuit to reduce power consumption in a remote unit in a wireless distribution system (WDS)

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10418948-B2
Application number	US-201715599613-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 19, 2017
Priority date	May 19, 2017
Publication date	Sep 17, 2019
Grant date	Sep 17, 2019

Abstract

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to optimizing power efficiency of a power amplifier circuit to reduce power consumption in a remote unit in a wireless distribution system (WDS). A power amplifier circuit is provided in the remote unit to amplify a received input signal associated with a signal channel(s) to generate an output signal at an aggregated peak power. In this regard, a control circuit is configured to analyze at least one physical property related to the signal channel(s) to determine a maximum output power of the power amplifier circuit. Accordingly, the control circuit configures the power amplifier circuit according to the determined maximum output power. By configuring the maximum output power based on the signal channel(s) in the input signal, it may be possible to optimize the power efficiency of the power amplifier circuit, thus helping to reduce the power consumption of the remote unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A power management circuit, comprising:
a power amplifier circuit comprising a signal input and a signal output, the power amplifier circuit configured to:
receive an input signal comprising one or more signal channels via the signal input;
amplify the received input signal to generate an output signal at an aggregated peak power; and
provide the output signal to the signal output; and

a control circuit configured to:
analyze at least one physical property related to the one or more signal channels of the input signal;
determine a maximum output power for the power amplifier circuit to amplify the received input signal to the aggregated peak power based on the at least one physical property of the one or more signal channels, wherein the maximum output power is greater than the aggregated peak power of the output signal; and
configure the power amplifier circuit according to the determined maximum output power.

2. The power management circuit of claim 1 , wherein the determined maximum output power of the power amplifier circuit is a smallest maximum output power required to amplify the received input signal to the aggregated peak power.

3. The power management circuit of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit comprises:
signal analysis circuitry configured to:
analyze the at least one physical property related to the one or more signal channels of the input signal; and
determine the maximum output power for the power amplifier circuit to amplify the received input signal to the aggregated peak power based on the at least one physical property of the one or more signal channels; and

power setting circuitry configured to configure the power amplifier circuit according to the determined maximum output power.

4. The power management circuit of claim 3 , wherein the at least one physical property related to the one or more signal channels comprises a count of the one or more signal channels, a respective bandwidth of the one or more signal channels, a respective power of the one or more signal channels, and a respective waveform of the one or more signal channels.

5. The power management circuit of claim 3 , wherein the signal analysis circuitry is configured to analyze the at least one physical property of the one or more signal channels by analyzing a sample of the input signal.

6. The power management circuit of claim 3 , wherein the signal analysis circuitry is configured to analyze the at least one physical property of the one or more signal channels by analyzing a sample of the output signal.

7. The power management circuit of claim 3 , wherein the signal analysis circuitry is configured to analyze the at least one physical property of the one or more signal channels by analyzing a digital signal corresponding to the input signal.

8. The power management circuit of claim 7 , wherein the digital signal is encoded in common public radio interface (CPRI) format.

9. The power management circuit of claim 3 , wherein the signal analysis circuitry is further configured to retrieve the at least one physical property of the one or more signal channels from a database.

10. The power management circuit of claim 1 , wherein:
the power amplifier circuit is further configured to:
receive a bias voltage at a voltage input from a power supply; and
amplify the received input signal based on the bias voltage to generate the output signal at the aggregated peak power; and

the control circuit is further configured to adjust the bias voltage to cause the power amplifier circuit to provide the determined maximum output power greater than or equal to the aggregated peak power of the output signal.

11. The power management circuit of claim 1 , wherein:
the power amplifier circuit comprises a plurality of power amplifiers; and
the control circuit is further configured to determine and enable one or more selected power amplifiers among the plurality of power amplifiers based on the determined maximum output power.

12. The power management circuit of claim 11 , further comprising:
a splitter configured to split the input signal into one or more channel-based input signals and provide the one or more channel-based input signals to the one or more selected power amplifiers, wherein the one or more selected power amplifiers are configured to amplify the one or more channel-based input signals to generate one or more channel-based output signals, respectively; and
a combiner configured to receive and combine the one or more channel-based output signals to generate the output signal at the aggregated peak power.

13. The power management circuit of claim 11 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to disable power amplifiers of the plurality of power amplifiers that are not among the one or more selected power amplifiers.

14. A method for configuring a power amplifier circuit in a remote unit in a wireless distribution system (WDS), comprising:
receiving an input signal comprising one or more signal channels;
analyzing at least one physical property related to the one or more signal channels of the input signal;
determining a maximum output power for a power amplifier circuit to amplify the received input signal to an aggregated peak power based on the at least one physical property of the one or more signal channels, wherein the maximum output power is greater than the aggregated peak power;
configuring the power amplifier circuit according to the determined maximum output power; and
amplifying the received input signal to generate an output signal at the aggregated peak power.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising determining the maximum output power of the power amplifier circuit as a smallest maximum output power required to amplify the received input signal to the aggregated peak power.

16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising analyzing the at least one physical property of the one or more signal channels by analyzing a sample of the input signal.

17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising analyzing the at least one physical property of the one or more signal channels by analyzing a sample of the output signal.

18. The method of claim 14 , further comprising analyzing the at least one physical property of the one or more signal channels by analyzing a digital signal corresponding to the input signal.

19. The method of claim 14 , further comprising retrieving the at least one physical property of the one or more signal channels from a database.

20. The method of claim 14 , further comprising adjusting a bias voltage received by the power amplifier circuit to provide the determined maximum output power greater than or equal to the aggregated peak power of the output signal.

21. The method of claim 14 , further comprising determining and enabling one or more selected power amplifiers among a plurality of power amplifiers based on the determined maximum output power.

22. The method of claim 21 , further comprising:
splitting the input signal into one or more channel-based input signals and providing the one or more channel-based input signals to the one or more selected power amplifiers;
amplifying the one or more channel-based input signals to generate one or more channel-based output signals, respectively; and
combining the one or more channel-based output signals to generate the output signal at the aggregated peak power.

23. The method of claim 21 , further comprising disabling, power amp

Assignees

• Corning Optical Communications LLC

Inventors

• Harel Dror

Classifications

• H04B17/13

  of power amplifiers, e.g. gain or non-linearity · CPC title

• H03F2203/21193

  the supply voltage of a power amplifier being continuously controlled, e.g. by an active potentiometer · CPC title

• H03F3/68

  Combinations of amplifiers, e.g. multi-channel amplifiers for stereophonics {(power amplifiers using a combination of several semiconductor amplifiers H03F3/211; combinations of amplifiers using coupling networks with distributed constants H03F3/602)} · CPC title

• H03F3/24

  of transmitter output stages · CPC title

• H03F3/2178

  using more than one switch or switching amplifier in parallel or in series (H03F3/2173, H03F3/2175 take precedence) · CPC title